IOL signs agreement with BSNL for IPTV services

• The agreement will allow IOL IPTV subscribers to view latest Hollywood blockbusters without commercial breaks, months before satellite TV broadcasts. IOL has already started trial services of IPTV on BSNL's broadband network in Bangalore. The launch in Bangalore is scheduled for January 14, followed by other cities.
• The viewer's TV connects to a set-top box that decodes the IP video and converts it into standard television signals.
• BSNL has over 700,000 Broadband ADSL subscribers across the country and this subscribers base is growing at a compound rate of over 100% every year
• The Centre has set a target of building a base of 20 million broadband users by 2010. It is predicted that by 2008, 20 million homes worldwide will subscribe to IPTV services.

Reliance to launch IPTV services by 2008

New year's first IPTV forecast

• Global IPTV subscribers will reach 14.5 million in 2007, up 192.4 per cent from 4.9 million in 2006, iSuppli predicts
• By 2010, worldwide IPTV subscribers will amount to 63 million, with IPTV service revenue forecasted to reach $ 38 billion in the year 2009 (worldwide IPTV subscribers are forecasted to reach 53 million in the year 2009)
• The Americas and Western Europe are expected to be the biggest markets in terms of revenue per user basis
• The Asia Pacific region will lead the global revolution in IPTV in terms of subscribers, service revenue, infrastructure etc. The region's broadband penetration, supportive regulatory framework, will fuel the growth
• IPTV market potential varies highly across the world depending upon the local Pay-TV market and regulatory conditions
• China will be the future IPTV dragon due to rapid urbanization, fast growing economy and expanding middle class
• The US will be a more difficult market for IPTV, due to high existing pay-TV penetration, and stiff price and service competition that is likely to come from the entrenched operators in the cable and satellite sectors

Worldwide IPTV Top Ten list

• Most of the world's IPTV subscribers (68%) are in Western Europe, and 28% are in Asia. But North America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa combined make up only 8% of the world's 2.7 million IPTV subscribers. Competition and the spread of pan-European carriers will likely drive continued growth in Western Europe
• France leads the top ten list, with 896,000 IPTV subscribers which is attributed to the intense competition among DSL providers there
• Next are, in order, Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Morocco, Russia, the United Kingdom and Sweden, which has just 45,000 subscribers
• The recent removal of regulatory restrictions in Japan will probably drive IPTV growth there
• United States is not among the ten countries with the most IPTV subscribers in the world. In U.S., AT&T's trial which was the most significant IPTV initiative in 2006, will probably lag the rest of the world for some time. The IPTV market in the USA will probably be dominated by a scattering of small, local service providers who have community roots and no cable TV competition.
• Hong Kong service provider PCCW boasts the world's largest IPTV subscriber base, with 638,000 subscribers in the third quarter. France Telecom, in second place, had 421,000. But with a 37% jump in the quarter, France Telecom's base is growing the fastest. By comparison, the total number of IPTV subscribers in the world grew only 19% in the quarter.
• The only countries in the top ten with double-digit IPTV penetration are Hong Kong, with nearly 60% (aided by a densely packed populous, which allows short loop lengths), and Morocco, with 21%.